nyslfriends Chapter 24 Medicinal Herbs
Chapter 24 Medicinal Herbs
Lin Mo slowly finished his practice and exhaled a breath of slightly chilly, turbid air. After a night of recuperation, the lingering pain in his meridians caused by forcibly cultivating the "Netherworld Record" at the mortuary last night had basically subsided. However, when circulating his internal energy, he could still feel a chill and solidity different from before.
His gaze fell on the tattered scroll of the "Records of the Netherworld" on the table, its surface gleaming with a dark, eerie light. His eyes sharpened. The cultivation method was clear, the path ahead was evident, but the bridge needed rare medicinal herbs to build. Without them, cultivation would be a perilous journey with a nine-out-of-ten chance of death.
"We can't delay any longer." Lin Mo stood up, changed into ordinary clothes as a minor leader of the Canal Gang, and carefully hid the tattered scroll. His public identity was still that of a minor leader of the Canal Gang, and he couldn't discard this disguise for the time being.
Instead of heading directly to the docks, he wandered around several streets and arrived at a seemingly ordinary herbal medicine shop in the south of the city. The shop was small, with the words "Jishengtang" written on its sign, and most of the customers were ordinary people. This was a frontal meeting point for the clandestine herbal medicine supply chain he controlled through the black market.
The shopkeeper was a lean old man in his fifties surnamed Hu. When he saw Lin Mo enter, his eyes flickered slightly, and then he put on a professional smile and greeted him: "Sir, what would you like to order? Although our shop is small, we have a fairly complete selection of medicinal herbs."
Lin Mo didn't waste any words, directly handing over a folded piece of paper and lowering his voice: "Manager Hu, take a look at these things, how long will it take to prepare them all?"
Shopkeeper Hu took the slip of paper, unfolded it, and looked at it. His expression remained unchanged, but his eyes became more serious. The slip of paper listed several kinds of medicinal herbs, which were exactly the ones needed for cultivating the "Netherworld Record": "Yin Condensation Grass, Corpse Moss, Bone-Rotting Flower, Hundred-Year Earth Milk, and Red Sun Fruit."
While the first three are unorthodox and insidious, with the power of his channel, he could obtain them with some effort. The key lies in the latter two: "Centennial Earth Milk" is the essence of the earth's veins, extremely rare and hard to come by; "Crimson Sun Fruit" grows in extremely yang places, equally rare, both priceless treasures.
Shopkeeper Hu pondered for a moment, then led Lin Mo to the inner room, closed the door, and whispered, "Chief Lin, we happen to have some Yin Ning Grass and Corpse Moss in the storeroom. We need to get the Rotting Bone Flower from the Southern Frontier; it will take about five days by fast horse. But the Hundred-Year Earth Milk and Crimson Sun Fruit…" He shook his head, looking troubled, "are really hard to find. To be honest, the market demand for these two herbs seems to have suddenly increased recently, prices have multiplied several times, and there's practically no market for them."
Lin Mo frowned slightly. Increased demand? Was it a coincidence, or… He immediately thought of the four great families, or perhaps other forces attracted by the unusual celestial phenomena that night? Were they also searching for similar rare and precious materials?
"Try your best to find out; price isn't an issue." Lin Mo's tone was calm, but carried an undeniable air of authority. "Let me know immediately if you get any news. Also, prepare the three items I can get my hands on first."
"Understood." Manager Hu nodded. He dared not neglect the owner of "Mo Xuan," who had recently established his authority in the black market and taken over some of the channels. "At the latest, the Yin Ning Grass and Corpse Moss will be delivered to the place you specify by tonight."
Leaving Jishengtang, Lin Mo was not at ease. The shortage of Hundred-Year Earth Milk and Crimson Sun Fruit was within his expectations, but hearing of the sudden increase in demand still made him wary. It seemed that cultivation required seizing every second, and the construction of his power also needed to be accelerated.
He arrived at the dock as usual, handling the daily affairs of a minor leader in the canal gang, supervising the loading and unloading of goods, and allocating manpower—everything seemed no different from usual. But secretly, a part of his mind was always focused on the progress of the medicinal materials, and through several trusted confidants he had cultivated, he began to more meticulously analyze the personnel and operating methods of that medicinal material channel, ensuring that it was completely under his control and sufficiently concealed.
As evening fell, Lin Mo received a message from Manager Hu via a specific method: the Yin Condensation Grass and Corpse Moss had been acquired and were stored under the statue of a deity in an abandoned local temple in the west of the city. As for the Corpse-Rotting Flower, it had been confirmed that there was stock in Southern Xinjiang, and it was en route.
As night fell, Lin Mo quietly left his residence once more, like a ghost in the darkness, and arrived at the local earth god temple in the west of the city. The temple was dilapidated, its incense long since extinguished, with only the broken statues casting distorted shadows in the moonlight. He easily found an oilcloth package in the designated spot, and upon opening it, two strangely shaped medicinal herbs came into view.
The Yin Condensation Grass is dark blue all over, with narrow, elongated leaves that feel icy to the touch, as if covered with a layer of frost. The Corpse Moss, on the other hand, is a palm-sized black lump with a wrinkled surface, exuding a strange aura that is a mixture of decay and coldness.
Simply by holding them, Lin Mo could feel the icy internal energy he had gained from cultivating the "Netherworld Record" becoming slightly active, resonating weakly with the two medicinal herbs.
"These are indeed the right things." Lin Mo rewrapped the medicinal herbs and kept them close to his body. With these two items, he could at least try to carry out a more secure initial cultivation, without having to rely entirely on his own strength to withstand the backlash of the evil energy as he had done last night.
In the following days, Lin Mo played the role of a minor leader of the Canal Gang during the day, and at night he carefully continued his cultivation of the first level of "Netherworld Records" – "Drawing Evil into the Body" – with the help of Yin Condensation Grass and Corpse Moss, while waiting for the arrival of the Bone-Rotting Flower and keeping an eye on news about the Hundred-Year Earth Milk and Crimson Sun Fruit.
With the aid of medicinal herbs, although the cultivation process was still painful, the degree to which his meridians were eroded by the evil energy was greatly reduced, and the intensity of the impact on his mind was also weakened considerably. Although progress was slow, the cold and yin attribute in his internal energy was steadily increasing, becoming more condensed, and its power was also rising accordingly. He could even faintly feel that the thin, yin and evil energy in the surrounding environment, which ordinary martial artists could not perceive or utilize, had become much "closer" to him.
On the fifth day, the Bone-Rotting Flower arrived as scheduled. This is a bizarre plant that grows near ancient battlefields or mass graves. It resembles withered bones, is grayish-white in color, and emits a nauseating, sweet-smelling odor. With the three main ingredients gathered, Lin Mo's cultivation became even more effortless, and his progress accelerated considerably.
However, the crucial Hundred-Year Earth Milk and Crimson Sun Fruit remained elusive. Manager Hu used all his connections, only to find out that several mysterious forces were indeed seeking these two medicinal herbs at exorbitant prices, causing an extreme shortage. Any that did appear were immediately snapped up at astronomical bids.
That night, Lin Mo finished his cultivation and felt the icy internal energy within his body grow stronger. The sense of security brought by the increase in strength was intertwined with the sense of urgency brought by the shortage of medicinal materials.
He pushed open the window and gazed at the deep night outside, his eyes seemingly trying to pierce through the darkness and see the competitors hidden behind the scenes.
"No matter who you are, or what you want..." Lin Mo muttered to himself, his voice cold and resolute, "none of you can stop me."
The medicinal herbs must be gathered, and his strength must be increased. The path of revenge allows no obstacles. He decided that if conventional channels yielded no progress, he might have to resort to drastic measures. After all, he controlled not only the channels, but also a gradually forming intelligence network, and… the methods he had learned as a top assassin in his previous life. However, now was not the time; he needed more patience, and he needed his black market base and intelligence network to grow faster.
Withdrawing his gaze, Lin Mo closed the window, sat cross-legged back on the bed, and continued to guide the wisp of cold internal energy within his body, slowly circulating it along the trajectory of the "Netherworld Record".